Ohio CPS News Archive

Ohio News Coverage

Allegations of child abuse or neglect should be investigated immediately, of course. But once they are ended, they ought to be closed officially as soon as possible. Sometimes that does not happen in Ohio.

In 2006, the state established a new computerized system to aid child welfare agencies throughout Ohio. The Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System cost more than $113 million and should have been an effective tool for both state and county officials.

A New Jersey high school student claims in a federal lawsuit that school administrators violated her First Amendment free-speech and religious-freedom rights when they said she couldn't participate in a day of silent protest against abortion.

The girl, identified in court papers as C.H., says she asked the Bridgeton High School principal last month for permission to join in the Pro Life Day of Silent Solidarity, a worldwide protest organized each year by Stand True, a ministry in Troy, Ohio. But the principal said no, telling her she couldn't do anything "religious," according to her lawsuit.

Agency pledges to use money for alternatives to foster care. With fresh tax dollars on the way, Franklin County Children Services will continue its push to reduce the number of children in foster care by paying for alternatives.

Instead of aggressively seeking custody, Children Services is trying to keep more children in their homes by linking families with services such as counseling, tutoring and emergency financial help. Fenner stressed, however, that the agency always will seek custody when children are in danger. "We maintain our traditional investigations for children who are at risk," he said.

As Ohio judicial and child protective services accept responsibility for the welfare of Rifqa Bary -- the 17-year-old runaway who fled to Orlando in July in fear of her life from her Muslim parents because of her conversion to Christianity.

The widely covered case of Rifqa Bary is shifting from Florida to Ohio now that an Orlando judge has ordered she be put in the custody of Franklin County Children Services, having previously ruled her case is the proper jurisdiction of the Ohio court system.

Rifqa Bary, a 17-year-old girl who fled her family's home after converting from Islam to Christianity, has been ordered to return to Ohio where she will be in the custody of a local children's services agency.

The decision, announced Oct. 13, reportedly was supported both by her lawyers and attorneys for her parents, natives of Sri Lanka who now reside in the Columbus area, according to a report by the Orlando Sentinel.

Christian ministers close to an Ohio teen who ran away to Florida claiming her Muslim parents threatened to kill her for converting from Islam say they have no doubt that Rifqa Bary's allegations are true.

Roger Weeden, an attorney for Bary's mother, Aysha, said a Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) report indicates there is "no evidence out there whatsoever" to corroborate Bary's allegations. Weeden was prevented from saying anything more because the report has been sealed for 10 days while the attorneys review its findings.

For the past seven nights I have been sleeping outside the office of my Congressman, Zack Space, of the 18th Congressional District of Ohio. It is one of the most conservative districts in America.

For three weeks I have been working to get Mr. Space to hold a PUBLIC TOWN HALL MEETING for these "disenfranchised" voters in the hills of eastern Ohio. Space, like so many other elected officials, has proven himself to be both cowardly and arrogant; unwilling to face those he has sworn an oath to represent. Because of that, I embarked on a 24/7 round-the-clock vigil outside of his office in Zanesville, Ohio.

It was a solemn moment, as family and friends of 21-month-old Tiffany Sue Banks-Cross watched the children's flag being raised in her memory. The toddler, who was in foster care, died April 2.

Trumbull County's Parents of Murdered Children raised the flag Thursday to remember the toddler. The Trumbull County Children Services Board took custody of Tiffany shortly after her birth in June 2007. Tiffany's biological family lost permanent custody of her in November.

Crayon still covers the bedroom walls at 2691 Snyder Court, the only sign that three children once played in the now-empty North Side apartment.

The 4-month-old, Izabella Fields, is dead. Two other children, a boy and a girl, are in foster care. Richard A. Davidson, 25, who watched Izabella while her mom, a family friend, was at work, was charged Wednesday with murder and felonious assault in her death.

DAYTON - Two young children found in a trash bin behind a local business have been taken away from their mother by Montgomery County Children's Services and put in foster care.

Ashonti Johnson, 23 months old, and her 8-month-old brother Tommie Johnson III were found about 8:30 a.m. Monday, July 27, by an electrician arriving for work. They had been in the heavy-duty, green plastic bin for as long as 13 hours, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said.

Butler County commissioners may cancel two social-service contracts next month that might save taxpayers more than $635,000, but could put more than a dozen clients who used the services on the street.

A vote is expected Thursday, July 30, to terminate two Community Behavioral Health contracts for services the agency provides through Transformation Station and Porch Light for $205,664 and $431,664, respectively. County officials said Monday, July 27, at a commission meeting that the cost of running the two locations outweighs their success. The contracts would likely end Sept. 15.

WARREN - The Trumbull County coroner ruled the April death of a 21-month-old girl who had been living in foster care as a homicide. He still is not releasing how the toddler died.

Coroner Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk declined on Wednesday to release many details in the death of Tiffany Sue Banks-Cross because the case remains under investigation. No suspects were named. The baby's grandmother, Loretta Banks, said it was a ruling she has expected since she said she saw her granddaughter, who had been living in foster care, looking "dirty and bruised" at her funeral in April.

The Trumbull County Coroner's office confirmed Wednesday that 21-month-old Tiffany Sue Banks-Cross's death was a homicide. However, officials will not say how the child, who was in foster care died, saying the case is still being investigated.

Tiffany's biological family lost permanent custody of the child shortly after her birth in June 2007. The Trumbull County Children Services Board took custody and the child was in foster care. No arrests have been made.

The Women's Prison Association (WPA) has released the first-ever national report on prison nursery programs. The report examines the expansion of prison nursery programs across the U.S.

These programs allow incarcerated women to keep their newborns with them in prison for a finite period of time. The report finds that the number of prison-based nursery programs is growing, but that such programs are still relatively rare.

Haylee Donathan, the missing 4-year-old who was discovered at a San Diego, Calif. Christian ranch on June 23, will be placed in foster care when she returns to Ohio.

After Haylee disappeared with her mother, Candace Watson, 24, and convicted sex offender Robbi Potter, 27, on May 28, a nationwide manhunt ensued. Potter was convicted and served time for two counts of sexual battery on children, ages 7 and 9.

DAYTON - The mother of a 2-year-old boy who died last week after suffering significant trauma to his midsection said she doesn't hold herself or her boyfriend responsible for the toddler's death.

Denise Stinson and roughly 30 others gathered on June 17, for a prayer vigil and memorial for her son, Malechi D. Wilson. Malechi died at Children's Medical Center at 8:46 p.m. on June 9. Malechi had been in foster care for less than a year before he was returned to Stinson in April, according to Montgomery County Children Services.

At 17, home-schooler Tyler Fehrman was the youngest paid member of the John McCain presidential campaign. In the last five years, he's worked on 18 political campaigns in five states.

Now, at 18, he is running for an at-large seat on the Mount Vernon, Ohio, City Council. Mr. Fehrman, who finished his schooling in May and plans to attend Mount Vernon Nazarene University this fall, represents the forefront of a growing trend: home-schoolers who are actively involved in politics in their communities.

Mentions of being paddled at school or having a corporal punishment policy tend to conjure up mental images of one room school-houses and boys in suspenders who were caught putting a frog in the lunch pail of a little girl with pigtails.

In fact, many parents are confounded to find out that their state actually allows children in public schools to be spanked by teachers and administrators. While Illinois has outlawed corporal punishment since 1993, there are still 22 states that still permit paddling, with only three have laws that restrict that use (AZ, OH, UT).

Money for county agencies serving the poor is being slashed so much that the Strickland administration is creating a "dangerous" situation for Ohio's most vulnerable citizens, local human services directors said in a letter to the governor yesterday.

The agencies are fearful about the loss of nearly $200 million a year in state aid, money spent at the county level on child protective services, aid to the working poor, and the administration of food stamp, Medicaid and other assistance programs.

LANCASTER, Ohio - Police on Friday continued to investigate a firebombing that they believe was retaliation against a caseworker assigned to a child protective services case.

According to police, on Dec. 14, Guy Luttrell smashed a window of an SUV belonging to a Fairfield County Child Protective Services caseworker, set a milk jug filled with gasoline on fire and threw it inside. The fire left the interior of the SUV badly charred.

A Dayton-area mother stabbed her attacker in the back before the man shot her dead, robbed her house, kidnapped her 4-year-old and abandoned the child at a highway rest area. Charlie W. Myers confessed to the crime Sunday night.

Ireland wrote that "Myers' childhood was decidedly abnormal, fraught with hardship and painful experiences," including being abandoned by his parents to foster care. Myers began smoking marijuana at age 7, began abusing alcohol a year later and "first attempted suicide at age 11," the lawyer wrote.